Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

William J. Maloney was a neurologist and a member of the Irish independence movement in the United States. The Maloney Collection of Irish Historical Papers contains material relating to the history of Ireland from the beginning of the Fenian movement to the proclamation of the Irish Republic. The collection includes papers by and about Sir Roger Casement, 1882-1965, reflecting his activities in the United States as a spokesman for Irish independence, and in Germany as a fundraiser for the Irish Volunteers and organizer of the Irish Brigade; papers of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, 1898-1937, relating to the history of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood and the Fenian Brotherhood; papers of Joseph McGarrity, 1911-1937, relating to the Irish Republican Movement in the United States; papers of Patrick McCartan, 1914-1949, including reports on conditions in Ireland after the Easter Rising in 1916 and copies of reports as envoy of the Provisional Government of Ireland to the Soviet Union; letters to David James O'Donoghue, 1888-1905, regarding his writing; records of the Joint Committee on the Immigration Act of 1924; correspondence of the Friends of Irish Freedom, 1919-1922, relative to the Irish bond certificate campaign; papers of William J. Maloney relating to Sir Roger Casement, the Irish Volunteer movement, and Irish-American relations. The collection also includes numerous pamphlets, booklets, periodicals and press releases.

Biographical/historical information

William J. Maloney (1882-1952) was a neurologist and a member of the Irish independence movement in the United States. He was born in 1882 in Edinburgh, Scotland to Irish parents. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, Paris, London, and Munich before immigrating to the United States in 1911. He served in the British Army during World War I and was released in 1916 after being wounded at the battle of Gallipoli. His experiences in war and the executions resulting from the Easter Rising in Dublin turned Maloney against England and made him a supporter of Irish independence.

After the Easter Rising, Maloney resigned his commission in the British Army and befriended many prominent supporters of Irish independence. He joined the Clan-na-Gael and become one of the most prolific writers for its newspaper, The Irish Press. He published several books and pamphlets on Irish issues, American political issues, and medical topics.

Maloney felt that it was necessary to preserve the record of the fight for the Republic. For this reason, he donated his papers to the library and encouraged other members of the Irish-American political movement to do so as well.

Scope and arrangement

The collection contains material relating to individuals and organizations involved in Irish and Irish-American politics and is arranged alphabetically. The earliest papers in the collection are from the mid-19th century and are those of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, one of the leaders of the Fenian movement in Ireland and America. The papers of Roger Casement document his work during World War I in the United States and Germany to solicit support for an Irish voluntary force. The material from the Friends of Irish Freedom, the Joint Committee on the Immigration Act of 1924, William J. Maloney, Patrick McCartan, Joseph McGarrity, the Collected Correspondence, and the Printed Material cover roughly twenty years of the work of these men in the United States and Ireland to achieve an independent Ireland, mainly through politics. The letters of David James O'Donoghue, while not as political as the rest of the collection, contain material on the history of Ireland.

The Roger Casement papers contain correspondence, articles by and about Casement, poems, diary extracts, photographs, and other materials regarding his work in American and Germany to gain support for the Irish Volunteers. Some of the materials are copies of original documents in the National Library of Ireland.

This series contains correspondence regarding the Irish bond issue and membership issues of the Friends of Irish Freedom. The majority of the correspondence is regarding donations to the bond drive instituted by Eamonn De Valera in 1919. The first half of the correspondence contains letters between Diarmuid Lynch, National Secretary of the Friends, and Frank P. Walsh, Chairman of the American Commission on Irish Independence, who had been appointed by De Valera to raise funds for the bond drive. The second half of the series contains mostly correspondence between Lynch and members of the Friends who had not received their bonds; Lynch forwarded these letters on to the Commission.

American Irish Historical Society, the Friends of Irish Freedom, the Clan-na-Gael, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and other organizations. Their aim was to have the Act repealed, their objection being the National Origins Quota. The Quota limited the number of immigrants from a given country allowed into the United States to 2% of the population of that group already in the country. The 1890 census was used to establish population numbers. The Committee felt that the Irish population numbers were wrong and that more Irish immigrants should be allowed into the United States. The Act was revised by Congress in 1952.

This series contains correspondence, articles, statistics, and invoices from the various organizations that constituted the Joint Committee on the Immigration Act of 1924.

The William J. Maloney series contains correspondence, articles, bond certificates, ephemera, photographs, and other material relating to Irish politics and other topics. The correspondence consists mainly of letters written to and from Maloney regarding his book, The Forged Casement Diaries, and relating to his work in the United States for the independence of Ireland. The articles include items written by Maloney and others on the struggle for Irish independence.

This series contains correspondence between Joseph McGarrity and other members of the struggle for Irish independence, articles written by McGarrity and others, a petition for McGarrity to run for election, and other material.

This series contains letters sent to David James O'Donoghue praising his work, inviting him to lecture, and requesting he edit writings of others. Included are letters from Douglas Hyde, Standish O'Grady, George William Russell, and Timothy Daniel Sullivan.

This series contains correspondence collected by Alice Delehanty, William J. Maloney, James McGurrin, and Jeremiah A. O'Leary that was not part of any of the previous series. All of the letters relate to the work of organizations and people in the United States and Ireland for an Irish republic. Prominent people in this series include Daniel F. Cohalan, Eamonn De Valera, John Devoy, Thomas St. John Gaffney, Constance Markiewicz, George William Russell, and Frank Walsh.

This series contains periodicals, pamphlets, flyers, press releases, manuscripts, and other printed material related to Irish independence collected by Alice Delehanty, William J. Maloney, James McGurrin, and Jeremiah A. O'Leary. Included are items from Ireland, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy. Titles include the constitution of the Clan-na-Gael adopted in 1926, the Daily Bulletin of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War, the Irish Bulletin, which was the official organ of the Irish forces in the Anglo-Irish War, a typescript of Going Native, a novel by Oliver St. John Gogarty, and press releases relating to the assassination of Thomas McCurtain, the Lord Mayor of Cork in 1920.

This series contains ephemera, invoices, unidentified notes, and a silent film of George William Russell visiting a horse farm during his second tour of the United States in 1933.

Administrative information

Custodial history

The bulk of the Maloney Collection of Irish Historical Papers was donated to the library by William J. Maloney over a period of eleven years. Smaller donations were made by Alice Delehanty, Patrick McCartan, James McGurrin, and Jeremiah A. O'Leary in the late 1930s at the suggestion of Dr. Maloney. A small portion of Roger Casement material was purchased by the library from Emily Driscoll in 1967. This material was at one point part of Dr. Maloney's collection.

The collection came to the library through the efforts of Dr. William J. Maloney, a neurologist in New York City and supporter of Ireland's fight for independence from England. Dr. Maloney donated the majority of the collection, but he convinced friends to donate material as well, by stressing the importance of saving these documents so that others would know of their struggle.